A critical review of local and world news. This blog originally commented on the Moncton Times and Transcript but has enlarged its scope.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Dec. 18: I know how the Irving press could save big money.

Instead of delivering a newspaper in the morning, it could distribute earplugs with a recorded message built into them.

"You are tired. you are very tired. You are getting sleee...."

There's not a damn thing in it worth reading - well---except for a quite professional column byAlec Bruce.

Quite apart from the fact that there's no news in the paper, the editorial is an almost childish rant about how terrible it was that someone shot a dog. especially a dog being trained to help a child. I agree. But I don't think a rant gets us very far in understanding this or dealing with it.

"RCMP should use all mean possible to find..." Well, yes. And they should question people. And they should go places in their cars. And they should take off their hats in a house. I scarcely think they need an editorial to tell them that.

Footprints in the snow indicate that the killer ran away like "a coward". What does being a coward have to do with it. Only a damn fool would stand there gawking.

The writer urges the RCMP to use all means possible....Good idea. The RCMP wouldn't do it if the editorial writer didn't urge them. They'd just use some means. What a useless editorial!

Then Norbert has a column on how sexual abuse of cheldren needs to be taken seriously. Well, to the best of my knowledge, it is taken very seriously, indeed. In any case, Norbert's article doesn't say a word about how or even why it should be taken seriously. Instead, it gives us a lot of information that has nothing to do with how we deal with the problem.

So what's the point? This is one of those thundering, "Something must be done columns" that makes no contribution at all.

Brian Cormier has what he intended to be an amusing but irrelevant story. It succeeds in only one category. And, no, amusing is not it's strong point.
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There are two letters that are just annoying. "RCMP showed restraint" (pure venom) and "Protesters are flouting the law." Forget for a moment that one could as easily write "Shale gas companies are using law to destroy environment and people."

Look. Where do people get the idea that flouting the law is always bad? Law is, quite often, not made by us. It is made by those in power, and used to exploit us. That's why ever country I have ever heard of has national heroes who flouted the law.

We can start with George Washington. Or Ghandi. Or Mendalla. English Protestants flouted the law in overthrowing their rightful, Catholic king to bring in a Protestant. My French ancestors broke the law in raiding the American colonies to murder English settlers. My Scottish ancestors flouted the law in resisting English rule.

Bush and Blair flouted international law in invading Iraq and killing over half a million people, at least. Under intrnational law, the Canadian invasion of Afghanistan was illegal on many grounds - as was the American invasion.. The US has broken international law in at least a hundred countries with assassination teams, drones and spying.

The US flouts the law in torturing thousands of prisoners. And Canada flouts the law in cooperating with the torture.

Stephen Harper flouts the law whenever he says Canada will unconditionally support Israel under any circumstances. That gem flouts international law (cause requirement) and Canadian practrice (need for parliamentary consent).

"Flouting the law" sounds grand and eloquent. But you have to think of what words mean as well as what they sound like.
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"Media fuels the frustration" is a tougher letter to deal with. It argues that newspaper reports of military cases ( including suicides) of stress disorder among soldiers can actually increase the incidence of suicides.

I don't know enough about it to comment on that. But it sounds reasonable.

The other side of the coin is that if this is not reported, it is quite likely to be neglected by our governments. It's always dangerous to suppress news.

It's also true that we need to understand the causes of this problem much more fully than we now do. We slipped early - a century ago - into the easy conclusion that it was fear and the stress of battle that did the damage. That's why General Patton slapped a soldier and called him a coward. We know a bit more now, though not enough. There may be here contained a quite terrible warning about what effect constant war may have on all of us.
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There was, alas, no news to comment on today. Tell you what. There are stories that need covering.
How about the assignment editor sends a couple of reporters to get the details of this strange introduction of a programme on entrepreurship that a group of businessmen is going to direct in our schools throughout every year of the school experience?

After all, this is a programme unique in the history of the democratic world. I have never heard of schools handing over their students like that/ Well...maybe in Mao's China or Hitler's Germany....

So this is a big deal. Maybe there should be orders of Moncton here, or a new hall of fame.

So who are these people (by name) who are going to direct the programme? What are their qualifications? Did the idea start with them? or with the Department of Education? Exactly where did this brilliant thinking all come from?

Can we have a rough outline of what it is our children will be taught? Is their any estimate of what percentage of these students are expected to become entrepreneurs?

Can we see a list of the books that will be required reading?

Oh, an what course and/or programmes are being cut to fit in this new one?

But, hey, who am I to set the questions? Assignment editors know all about that sort of thing.
I just can't understand why such a big story involving a fundamental change to our education system has had so little attention.

Oh, and God help the class of 2014.
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Irving press editors who are now sitting, idly watching the snow fall, might want to give thought to something for tomorrow more interesting than, "Moncton has more snow".

They could look at Google News, which beats the Irving press to a pulp.

Or they could look up Information Clearing House, a site operated with devotion and courage to print the news that other sources miss. (In retaliation,it gets frequent visits from the FBI and NSA, and considerable harassment of its site.)

The Dec. 17 edition has the interesting film of the murder of some 5000 Korean prisoners by the US military just after World War Two. (Though it has been widely distributed around the world and been seen my millions, only Information Clearing House has it in the US. It might help to explain why the US has become the world's most hated country.) It's called The Ghosts of Jeju.

Then there's the story of the American Studies Association (a major academic group) which has boycotted Israeli universities for their support of a government which has behaved brutally and illegally toward Palestinians. Funny how the editors of the Irving press missed that one.

Other biggies - an American federal court judge has ruled that the National Security Act spying in the US in unconstitutional. In a related story, the TV news programme 60 Minutes has now obviously sold out. It ran a show kissing up to the NSA and allowing no space for critics of it.

There's also a video on Henry Kissinger: The Making of a War Criminal. And there are more leaks that the Bush government knew at the time of 9/11 that the Saudi government ( not Afghanistan or Iraq) was funding the 9/11 attack.

But I'm sure the US government would not have objected to such an act by the Saudis. It's public knowledge that American business and political leaders had planned the Afghanistan and Iraq attacks long before 9/11 -and also public knowledge that they needed a "Pearl Harbour" to justify such attacks.

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About Me

born into poverty in Montreal. (1933 was a bad year to be born.) Kicked out of school in grade 11. Became factory hand, office boy.
Did a general BA, mostly at night at Sir George Williams University, and partly while a youth worker for YMCA, camps, etc. Then teacher training at McGill.
Taught gradea 7 to 11 for six years. Loved it.
Quit to do MA at Acadia, then PhD (History) at Queen's.
Taught history three years at UPEI, then some 35 years at Concordia U in Montreal.
Loved the teaching. Thought the profs had more pompous and useless asses among then than is really desirable outside a zoo.
work experience:
factory, office,social group work, office,camp director, teacher.
Radio - c. 3000 broadcasts, mostly current events.
TV - many hundred appearances, mostly commentaries.
Film - some writing, advising, voice-overs.
Writing - no count, some hundreds. Some academic, but mostly for popular market, and ranging from short stories to stories to newspaper and magazine columns to history books.
professional speaker - close to 2000.
Awards for the above? yep